The wind screamed.
Vaidya's spell had turned the air around Kreg into a violent, twisting cage. Sand and seawater spiraled upward around him, forming a turbulent column that obscured his body from view. The current was so dense that even Solis had to brace himself against it.
For one second, Solis thought they had him.
Then the wind stopped.
Not weakened.
Stopped.
The entire spell collapsed inward with a sound like a massive breath being sucked into the earth.
Vaidya's eyes widened. "What?"
The answer emerged from the settling mist. Kreg stepped forward.
His armor was scratched. His cloak was torn at the hem. A few strands of his beard were wet from the spray that had been thrown against him. Otherwise, he looked completely fine.
He casually brushed a grain of sand from one shoulder.
Then his hand lifted. Black energy gathered around his palm.
It did not explode or lash outward. It condensed.
A weapon took shape inside the darkness.
The Blacknight Dragon Sword materialized in his hand with a low metallic growl. Its dark blade seemed to absorb the morning light around it, leaving a faint distortion in the air along its edges.
Kreg looked down at the sword. Then he laughed.
It was not an insane laugh.
It was the laugh of a man who had just been handed back a forgotten piece of his youth.
"Oh." He slowly rolled his shoulder. "You don't know how exquisite this arrangement is."
His eyes moved between Solis and Vaidya.
"Almost one hundred years." He smiled. "Almost one hundred years since I have stood on a battlefield."
He raised the sword slightly.
"I think I should thank you two."
Solis felt his throat tighten.
Kreg's eyes gleamed.
"So..." His stance shifted. "...let's start our duel."
He disappeared.
Solis barely understood what happened.
One instant Kreg stood several meters away.
The next—
Something screamed through the air behind him.
Solis's instincts detonated.
He spun and brought both weapons up at once.
His sword occupied his dominant right hand, blade angled outward for maximum attack speed. His battered axe remained in his left, its hooked head turned inward. It was the stance Devon had taught him to build from his own strengths: one hand for precision, the other for leverage, hooking, trapping and disruption.
Kreg's sword struck.
CLANG!
The impact nearly tore Solis's arms from their sockets.
His feet left the ground.
For a terrifying instant he was airborne, launched backward by pure physical force.
He twisted. Rather than resist the momentum, Solis let it carry him.
One foot touched the ground. He rotated through the movement, sliding several meters before recovering his footing. His sword came around naturally with the spin, his right palm turning outward as the tip pointed straight at Kreg. His axe rested across his right forearm, the handle held firmly in his left hand.
A peculiar stance.
A stance that did not appear in any conventional combat manual.
Kreg studied him. One eyebrow rose. "Hmm."
His mouth curved faintly.
"An unorthodox stance."
His sword lowered slightly. "So you rely on cheap tricks."
Solis's eyes narrowed.
Kreg shrugged. "I actually expected more."
Then his smile returned. "But that's fine though."
He lunged.
Solis barely blocked the first strike.
The second came immediately.
Then the third.
Then another.
Metal shrieked against metal.
Sparks burst across the shoreline with every collision, tiny orange flashes scattering into the morning air before the wind swallowed them.
Solis can't not read Kreg's movement. That's the problem.
He had trained for speed.
He had fought Devon countless times in practice battles.
His instincts had sharpened through it.
But Kreghas been on another level.
He isn't simply fast. It's his footwork, reaction spped and flawlessness that is making it harder fot Solis.
Every strike arrived at the exact moment Solis finished responding to the previous one.
Sword from the right.
Solis blocked with the sword.
Kreg twisted.
The blade changed angle.
Solis caught it with the axe hook.
Kreg immediately kicked.
Solis barely moved his knee in time, the boot grazing his armor.
Kreg's sword returned.
Solis ducked.
The blade passed over his head.
Solis retaliated with a right-handed cut.
Kreg stepped aside.
The strike missed by less than an inch.
Solis swung the axe upward.
Kreg caught the shaft with the flat of his sword and shoved it away.
Solis's arms shook.
Thirty percent. He had already released thirty percent of his Aura using the 'Aura Release Technique'.
His body immediately became sharper.
His senses stretched.
His footwork tightened.
The world slowed by the smallest fraction.
But against Kreg...
It isn't enough.
Solis's mind flashed back to Instructor Tedric. Aura Release is not brute force.
It is all about alignment.
Soul.
Mind.
Body.
He tried to keep all three synchronized.
Yet Kreg kept breaking that rhythm.
Every time Solis found his balance, Kreg changed the rhythm.
Every time Solis anticipated a strike, Kreg delayed it.
Every time Solis thought he saw an opening, Kreg had already moved through it.
"You are good," Kreg said casually between strikes.
Solis blocked another slash.
"But you're thinking too much."
A horizontal cut.
Solis ducked.
"You're calculating."
Another.
He blocked with the axe.
"You're waiting."
A thrust.
Solis turned his sword sideways and deflected it.
"And while you're thinking..."
Kreg vanished from his vision again.
"...I am already moving."
Solis sensed him.
He turned.
Too late.
Kreg's sword slammed into his guard. The impact threw Solis sideways. He crashed into a rock, rolled, and came back up immediately.
His lungs burned. His arms are trembling.
Kreg had not even activated the Blacknight Dragon Sword's deeper power.
That realization was more frightening than the battle itself.
He was doing this with swordsmanship alone.
Pure swordsmanship.
The legendary Dark Knight — the man whose name had survived for generations — was dominating him without even revealing what the weapon truly did.
Behind the fight, Vaidya was working. His hands moved rapidly through a sequence of signs.
Wind gathered around him.
Then moisture. Then something else.
The atmosphere changed.
A faint vibration spread through the ground.
Vaidya's notebook lay open beside him, pages whipping in the wind.
He had already prepared the spell.
An advanced one.
Something far larger than the simple utility magic he normally preferred.
His eyes remained fixed on Solis.
"Come on..." He whispered. "Just give me an opening."
The spell grew.
Water began gathering in the air.
Not droplets.
Sheets.
Thin ribbons spiraled around his arms, forming a growing sphere behind him.
The ocean has answered to his calls. Waves rose unnaturally.
Water lifted from the shoreline in long, twisting streams and began gathering overhead.
Vaidya's breathing became strained.
This was not a spell meant for convenience.
This was a battle specific technique.
And it needed one thing — Space.
Solis needed to get out of the spell's range.
The problem is that Kreg would not give him any.
Another clash.
Sparks.
Solis blocked.
Another.
He ducked.
Another.
The axe caught the sword.
Kreg twisted.
The hook nearly trapped the Blacknight blade.
Solis pulled.
Kreg used the resistance to pivot and drove an elbow into Solis's shoulder.
Solis staggered.
He immediately released another pulse of Aura.
Thirty-five percent.
He refused to go too higher. Still something worthwhile. His body had not forgotten the last time he pushed too far.
Kreg saw the hesitation.
His grin returned. "Ah." He stepped forward. "You are restraining yourself."
Solis said nothing.
"Why?"
Solis's sword moved.
Kreg blocked it.
"Fear?"
Another strike.
"Discipline?"
Another.
"Experience?"
Kreg's blade slammed against the axe and sent it away.
"Or perhaps..." Kreg's eyes narrowed.
"...you already know what happens when you force your power beyond your body."
Solis's blood ran cold.
Kreg knew.
Of course he knew.
The Dark Knight suddenly accelerated.
Solis barely survived the next sequence.
Right.
Left.
High.
Low.
Feint.
Counter.
Slash.
Thrust.
The axe blocked one.
The sword blocked another.
A third slipped through and cut across Solis's sleeve.
He stumbled backward.
Kreg pursued.
Vaidya cursed under his breath.
"Move, Solis! Move!"
Solis heard him. He tried to do that. But Kreg blocked the route.
Another strike.
Solis ducked.
Another.
He rolled.
A blade struck the rock behind him.
Stone exploded.
Solis came back up and immediately attacked.
His sword cut upward.
Kreg parried.
His axe swung toward Kreg's ribs.
Kreg stepped backward.
For the first time...
Solis created distance.
Only a few meters.
But enough.
Vaidya's eyes lit up.
"Yes!"
Water erupted.
A massive column surged upward from the sea.
Vaidya raised both arms and shouted the final incantation.
"By the breath that moves through every living thing—"
The water twisted.
"By the rivers that remember every path—"
The entire shoreline shook.
"By the sea that bears no master—"
Vaidya's eyes flashed.
"TIDAL BIND!"
The ocean came crashing inward.
A wall of water surged across the beach and swallowed the space between them.
Solis jumped backward.
Suddenly Ada burst from the rocks at the exact same moment, sword drawn.
"Move!"
Solis rolled aside.
Razille appeared beside her, her signature dagger already in hand.
Kreg's eyes widened slightly.
Three opponents.
Solis.
Ada.
Razille.
For the first time since the battle began, Kreg stopped attacking.
The water struck.
The shoreline disappeared beneath a violent torrent.
Kreg was consumed.
Solis stumbled backward and stared.
Ada landed beside him, breathing hard.
She looked at the roaring water. "Is it over?"
Solis didn't answer. His breathing was uneven. His sword remained raised. His axe remained ready.
Something in his head refused to accept it.
The stories. The old accounts.
The battle that made the word Legendary mean something.
A man like that did not fall because someone threw a large wave at him.
Not this easily.
Not Kreg.
Solis stared at the raging water.
"No."
Ada looked at him. "What?"
Solis tightened his grip. "No. It isn't."
Razille's expression had gone pale.
She knew it too.
Vaidya was on one knee, exhausted, trying to breathe through the aftermath of the spell.
The wave began settling.
Foam rolled back toward the sea.
Broken rocks emerged.
Steam drifted across the beach.
For a moment there was nothing.
Then—
Footsteps.
Solis's blood froze.
One.
Two.
Three.
A dark silhouette emerged from the mist.
Kreg.
His armor was soaked.
His cloak was torn.
Water streamed from his beard.
His expression.
Delighted?
He slowly wiped his face with one hand.
Then looked at the four of them.
"What an interesting group."
Ada raised her sword.
Razille tightened her grip on the dagger.
Solis shifted his stance.
Vaidya, still breathing heavily, slowly forced himself upright.
Kreg lifted the Blacknight Dragon Sword.
"Three against one." He smiled. "Now this is beginning to feel like a proper battle."
The Blacknight Dragon Sword pulsed.
Something dark moved along its blade.
And Solis realized, with a chill that reached all the way down his spine, that they had not yet seen Kreg's real power.
Not even close.